COMPANY Profile Who will challenge Gordon for the title?
The title in question is that of “The oldest full-time working signmaker in the country” and the present contender is Gordon Waylett of Eurographics in Aveley, Essex, who is in his 81st year. Gordon is a Partner in Eurographics, a company he founded
with his wife, Jean in October 1988, at an age when most other people would have been looking towards retirement.
Spring 1959, shortly after moving out of London. Gordon’s adult working life began in 1947 when he joined the
Post Office as a trainee Telephone Engineer. He worked there for two years before completing his National Service in the Royal Signals and then returning to the Post Office. By October 1954 Gordon was married, living with is wife Jean
and twin sons, Colin and Andrew in a flat in Hampstead, London, but they were keen to move out of the city. “It was summer 1958 and we happened to be out for a
drive in Kent when we saw some empty cottages at Fawkham Green, near Brands Hatch, a much nicer location than our London flat. The cottages were available to rent at 17/6d a week (87.5p) so we splashed out and rented two," says Gordon. Having left his job at the Post Office and moved to a new
area, Gordon admits the first few months were particularly difficult. “I was selling door to door, anything to make a living; then
I got a position with GKN Sankey as a Service Engineer on their new milk vending machines that were being sited everywhere. In April 1960 son number three, Stephen, arrived and Gordon stayed with GKN Sankey for about seven years, then left to start his own company supplying and servicing vending machines of all types and the ingredients too. In 1979 Gordon and Jean moved to Spain where their
three sons were already working in the jewellery trade after all three had gained Diplomas at Medway College of Art and Design in Jewellery. Gordon’s sons are the only three brothers to have their Makers Marks registered at The London Assay Office at the same time. There are plenty of fathers and sons, but not three brothers – a small claim to fame. Come 1988, Gordon and Jean decided to return to the UK
Jean and Gordon in the 1960s, in front of one of the many vending machines Gordon was installing in and around Kent.
64 Sign Update ISSUE 130 JULY/AUGUST 2011
and start another business. They were staying in a flat belonging to a cousin who was a Dentist. Because there was no name or number on the front door this gave problems to the postman who asked that some kind of sign be provided.
One of the first pictures of a young Gordon, early 1930s.
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